Yinka Shonibare’s Wind Sculpture (SG) I in Central Park. ‘My piece is about the different backgrounds of people coming together.’
Photograph: Jason Wyche/Courtesy of Public Art Fund, New York

Last month, New York removed a statue of 19th-century gynaecologist James Marion Sims from Central Park after activists demanded the monument be taken down. Sims performed surgical experiments on enslaved black women without anaesthesia. Now, a new monument has gone up.

Presented by the Public Art Fund, British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare has unveiled Wind Sculpture (SG) 1 to the public, a 23ft fiberglass sculpture that highlights global migration.

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It squares in on tolerance, which is central to Shonibare’s philosophy. “It’s a simple equation,” said Shonibare over the phone from his London studio. “You want to be safe, warm and clothed and looked after. Thereforeit’s natural you should want that for other people.”

It started in 2010, when Shonibare created Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, a scaled-down replica of HMS Victory, Lord Nelson’s flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar. For the ship’s sails, he used a colourful batik pattern – his visual trademark for many of his artworks – but he felt the sails could stand on their own.

“I wanted to develop the sails and push that further,” said Shonibare, “and that’s how the Wind Sculptures came about.”

The batik-patterned textiles originated in Indonesia, but are better known for their association with the European colonization of west Africa. “The fabrics are now known as African textiles,” said Shonibare. “I like the relationship between the different cultures, as the fabric is a metaphor for the movement of people and global relationships.”

In 2013, Shonibare kicked off his Wind Sculptures series, and they’re now scattered in nine spots over the world, from the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington to the Ndubuisi Kanu Park in Lagos. This new piece in Central Park is the first in the “second generation” of Wind Sculptures and signifies new beginnings.

“My piece is about the different backgrounds of people coming together,” said Shonibare. “It does touch on migration – which is central to the work – as the fabrics are a signifier of the identity of people from Africa and the African diaspora, but more importantly, how they encounter with Europe.”

The piece, he notes, is timely. “We’ve seen a rise in nationalism in Britain with issues around Brexit, in the US with the issues around the Dreamers, and as an artist, I’m not necessarily going to promote anything that excludes people,” said Shonibare. “Many people have come to the US from different parts of the world, the same with Britain, and there is something quite false about pure races. It’s a fallacy, in a way. That’s what my work seeks to expose.”

The new Wind Sculpture also stands a few blocks from Trump Tower. “That is pure coincidence,” said Shonibare. “It obviously does resonate differently, given that everything that has been happening.”

Yinka Shonibare in London. Photograph: James Mollison/Courtesy James Cohan, New York

Shonibare has watched America change. “I am somewhat baffled by it, given America’s history,” he says. “It used to be a safe haven; it’s where you went for refuge. I’m not American, I’m an observer, but I’m disappointed in what’s been going on. It’s shocking to see this.”

The sculpture responds, in a way, to Trump’s recent comment, where he referred to some African nations, as well as Haiti and El Salvador, as “shithole countries.”

It hit a nerve for Shonibare, who grew up in Lagos. “I think that comment was based on ignorance. That’s all that can be said about that, really.”

The shape of the new sculpture is meant to look like it’s blowing in the wind. “Most of us move around the world, if you fly, there is wind involved, and if you come by boat, there is wind involved,” he says. “It’s a metaphor for the natural movement of people. Migration.”

This year, Shonibare is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Guest Projects, his artist residency and exhibition space on the ground floor of his London studio. Inspired by the migration theme, he will also be launching a new residency for artists in Lagos, which will be called Guest Projects Lagos. “I feel that cultural exchange is always good, it’s how you avoid ignorance,” he said.

Shonibare will look to the bigger picture for the talks. “There are many inequalities among people: racism, nationalism, sexism, homophobia. All these things don’t really go away,” he says. “As artists, what we try to do is create a platform engaging people on these social and cultural concerns.”